Lu You was a great patriotic poet and ci poet of the Southern Song Dynasty. Lu You and Xin Qiji were the most important poet and ci poet respectively, and they both created outstanding achievements. In Lu You's poems, patriotism in literature reached its zenith in history. His poems had an extensive influence during his time as well as on later generations.
Background
Lu You (陸游, 1125 - 1210), styled Wuguan (務觀), gave himself the pseudonym of Fangweng. He was a native of Shanyin in Yuezhou (today's Shaoxing, Zhejiang).
Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, October 17, 1125 (Chinese calendar). One year after his birth, the troops of the Jin Dynasty conquered the capital of the Northern Song dynasty; his family fled to the south. Lu You's family included government officials, and he received a good education. He was brought up to be patriotic, and grew up determined to expel the foreign Jurchen from the North and bring about the reunification of China under the Song dynasty.
Lu You was hardworking. He was already an excellent writer at a young age. At age 12, Lu You was already an excellent writer, had mastered the skill of sword fighting, and had delved deeply into war strategy. At age 19, he took the civil service examination, but did not pass. At 29, he emerged as the top student in the civil service examinations. The following year, Lu You participated in the nation examinations in the capital Lin'an. The examiner was impressed by his literary talent and wanted to select hind top student again.
Career
Lu You started his official career in government. Because he avidly insisted on fighting against the Jin Dynasty and did not follow the mainstream official lethargy on the subject, he was dismissed from his job. In 1172, he was hired to do strategic planning in the military. Military life opened his eyes and mind; he hoped to fulfill his aspiration of bringing a divided China back together. He wrote many unrestrained poems to express his passionate patriotism. But the Song Dynasty was by now corrupt and indolent; most officers just wanted to make a nice living; Lu You had no opportunity to deploy his talent. "Entering upon a public career by virtue of his father's services, he fell into disfavour with Ch'in Kuei; but after the latter's death he received an appointment, and in 1163 the Emperor Hsiao Tsung made him a Compiler for the Privy Council and conferred upon him the honorary degree of chin shih."
He was unsuccessful in his official career: he adopted a patriotic irredentist stance, advocating the expulsion of the Jurchen (女真) from northern China, but this position was out of tune with the times. In 1175, Fan Chengda asked him to join his party. They shared literary interests, and now behaved casually in official society. Lu You felt there was no place for him in official life, and started to become self-indulgent, enjoying drinking to forget his lack of success in his personal life and career pursuit. He gave himself the hao, or style name, Fangweng (放翁) meaning "Liberated Old Man", and was sarcastic about himself in his poems.
Lu You retired at age 65 to live in seclusion in his hometown of Shanyin. He continued to live his later years as a talented poet. When he was 75 years old, he visited Shen's Garden. He wrote two poems on Shen's Garden id commemorate his first wife. During his retirement, he still ardently supported fighting against the Jin Dynasty, but without success. His wife died in 1197. On December 29, 1209 (Chinese calendar), he died at age 86. His great regret was knowing that northern China was still in the control of the foreigners.
Lu You wrote about eleven thousand poems, in both the shi (詩) and ci (詞) forms, plus a number of prose works. In his poetry he continues to articulate the beliefs which cost him his official career, calling for reconquest of the north. Watson identifies these works as part of the legacy of Du Fu (杜甫). Watson compares a second body of work, poems on country life and growing old, to those of Bai Juyi (白居易) and Tao Qian (陶潛).